Darfur's fractious rebel groups started key talks on Friday to hammer out a united front paving the way for negotiations with the Khartoum government and an end to the deadly civil conflict.
"For the first time in a long time, I have a feeling of hope for Darfur, a sense of opportunity not to be lost," top UN mediator Jan Eliasson said in his opening remarks.
Asked when final settlement talks could take place, Eliasson's African Union (AU) counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim said: "Within the next two months."
When the deadly conflict erupted in Darfur four-and-a-half years ago, the uprising against the central authority in Khartoum was spearheaded by one group that was protesting the government's "policies of maginalization, racial discrimination, exclusion, exploitation and divisiveness."
Now diplomats face the daunting task of finding common ground for a dozen rebel factions.
"Our objective is to find a common position. You cannot have negotiations with on the one hand, the Khartoum government, and seven, eight or nine rebel groups on the other," Salim said.
At least 16 military commanders were expected to take part in the talks.
Eliasson said it was crucial to rapidly capitalize on Tuesday's Security Council decision to deploy 26,000 peacekeepers in Darfur to boost the political process.
"I fear a very dangerous situation in the camps" of displaced people if there is no rapid progress on the political front, he said.
"It will take some time before all the peacekeepers are deployed. The political process is now at a crucial stage," he said.
After a day of preliminary meetings, the talks kicked off in earnest late on Friday, but without the Sudan Liberation Movement of Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, the founding father of the rebellion and a member of Darfur's largest tribe.
"We regret that Abdel Wahid Nur is not here. We hope that with this decision, he is not excluding himself from the final negotiations we are planning," Eliasson said.
Nur's faction contests the legitimacy of the many splinter rebel groups and also argues crunch talks with the government should only be considered once the new "hybrid force" of UN and AU peacekeepers is deployed.
"The more you recognize individuals as faction leaders by inviting them to talks like those in Arusha, the more factions there will be, and consequently disorder on the ground," his spokesman Yahia Bolad said.
Eliasson nevertheless described the Arusha meeting as "highly representative and the widest group of rebels ever assembled."
A Darfur peace deal was reached with the Sudanese government in Abuja in May last year but it was only endorsed by one of three negotiating rebel groups. The signatory was Minni Minawi, a military commander who broke away from Nur's group and is now the fourth-ranking official in the Sudanese state.
According to a recent report on the Darfur rebels, the need is not so much for an effort to revive the Abuja peace deal but for a new and inclusive process.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station